56 



October the 1st, 1826. It was very extensive also, 

 being noticed here, at Chester, Wigan, and Liverpool, 

 on the same day, and in all which places its appear- 

 ance seems to have been precisely similar. The 

 descent of the gossamer will generally be found to 

 precede rain, a short time ; and sometimes accompa- 

 nying it, when the weather has been previously dry 

 for some time ; when it presents a very remarkable 

 appearance, and just such a one as I can imagine 

 Hooke to have witnessed when he formed the notion of 

 the clouds being composed of that material. 



" On the 1 5th of March last, I was observing a very 

 extensive ascent of spiders, chiefly of two kinds only? 

 and rather of large size. They mostly ascended, not 

 by single threads, but the whisk-shaped fasciculi as 

 before described. I remarked they did not all ascend 

 and float away in the same direction, but frequently 

 directly opposite one to another. I had with me an 

 accurate pocket compass made by Jones of London, 

 which enabled me to determine with precision, that 

 in all such cases, without one single exception, the 

 ascents were made at right angles with the magnetic 

 meridian." 



Currents of wind, invested with the opposite state 

 of electricity, will facilitate the descent of the gossamer 

 spider. In the month of July last we were on board 

 the " Royal Adelaide" of 120 guns, then in ordinary 

 at Devonport. Along with other information the 

 officer on board informed us, that he was constantly 

 annoyed with small spiders alighting on the ship, with 

 a dry easterly wind. In the first edition of our 

 " Treatise on Atmospherical Electricity," p. 81., we 

 described the following phenomenon in experiments 

 made with the aeronautic spider, in a hay-field, on the 

 28th of July last : " Three aeronautic spiders were 



